Hope for the Holidays
$25 includes the 3-hour retreat + guided meditation library
If you are dreading the holidays, already thinking about the empty chair, or wondering how much of the season you can handle, this retreat gives you time to work through it before you are in the middle of it.
We will use mindfulness, meditation, journaling, deep relaxation, and practical planning to help you understand what you need and make choices for the holidays ahead.
Join from home. Bring a journal, something to drink, and a few things that bring you comfort.
The holidays can make grief harder to ignore
Invitations arrive. Family members start making plans. Familiar traditions bring up memories, and ordinary things like music, food, decorations, or an empty place at the table can remind you how much has changed.
You could be wondering what you can handle, what you want to change, how to remember the person you miss, or whether you want to participate at all. Hope for the Holidays gives you time to think through those decisions before the season starts making them for you.
The goal is to understand what matters to you, what could help, and where you still have choices.
Work through the season before it arrives
We will use my Grief-Sensitive Holiday Planner along with mindfulness practices to look at the parts of the holidays that already feel complicated. You will leave with practical coping tools and a guided meditation library you can keep using through the holiday season and beyond.
Coping with hard moments
Identify practices you can use on the spot when your thoughts are racing, your body feels tense, or grief suddenly takes over the moment.
Invitations and boundaries
Look at what you want to say yes to, what you want to skip, and what could make a difficult gathering easier to handle.
Support you can actually use
Get specific about who you can call, text, sit beside, or ask for help rather than waiting until you are overwhelmed to figure it out.
Traditions and remembrance
Decide what you want to keep, change, or release this year, and consider how you want to remember the person you love.
$25 includes the live 3-hour retreat and guided meditation library.
Prepare your body for the stress of the season
Grief can show up as racing thoughts, tension, exhaustion, difficulty sleeping, or feeling overwhelmed by everything that still needs to get done.
We will practice deep relaxation together so your body has a familiar way to pause. You can return to the practice when holiday stress builds or when grief hits harder than expected.
Know what to reach for when grief hits
We will identify simple coping skills you can use right away when a conversation, gathering, memory, or unexpected moment brings grief to the surface.
You will also have time to reflect, write, ask questions, and spend time with people who understand why the holidays can feel so complicated.
Bring what helps you settle in
Hope for the Holidays is live and online, so make yourself a space where you can listen, write, meditate, and take a break from everything else for a while.
Bring the things that help you feel comfortable and connected to yourself or the person you are remembering.
- A journal and pen
- Water, tea, coffee, or a snack
- A blanket, pillow, shawl, or favorite sweater
- A photo or meaningful object that reminds you of the person you love
- Comfortable clothes and enough room to sit, stretch, or lie down
This work is personal for me
I was seven years old when my uncle died by suicide in October 1977. My family survived, but we did not get the support we needed. There were things left unspoken, tension no one quite knew what to do with, and false smiles that became especially noticeable during the holidays.
Years later, when I began working on a suicide hotline and studying thanatology, I started to understand what that little girl, her parents, and her grandparents had been carrying. Today my work brings together grief education, mindfulness, yoga therapy, and more than two decades of supporting people who are grieving.
I created Hope for the Holidays to give you time to say what is true, practice tools you can use outside the retreat, and make decisions based on what you need this year.
About Hope for the Holidays
When is Hope for the Holidays?
Hope for the Holidays is Saturday, November 14 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM ET. The retreat is live and online, so you can join from home.
How much does the retreat cost?
Registration is $25. Your registration includes the live three-hour retreat and a guided meditation library you can use throughout the holiday season and beyond.
Is this only for the first holiday after a death?
No. The holidays can bring grief back into focus whether the death happened recently or many years ago. What feels hard and what helps can change from one year to the next.
Do I need experience with mindfulness or meditation?
No experience is required. I will guide the practices during the retreat and explain how you can use them when grief shows up in everyday life. Try what interests you, keep what helps, and leave the rest.
What will we work on during the retreat?
We will work with holiday grief, coping practices, invitations, boundaries, support, traditions, remembrance, meditation, journaling, deep relaxation, and the decisions that are already taking up space in your mind.
What should I bring?
Bring a journal and pen, something to drink, and anything that brings you comfort. You could also bring a photo, meaningful object, blanket, pillow, or favorite sweater.
Give yourself time to prepare for the holidays before you are in the middle of them
Join me online Saturday, November 14 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM ET for mindfulness practices, reflection, deep relaxation, practical planning, and time with people who understand why this season can feel so complicated.
$25 includes the retreat + guided meditation library
Join the Retreat for $25